Honeybee health and beekeeping

Bees and other pollinators play an important role in the production of our food. Without bees, pollination would be very severely reduced, and without pollination, agriculture would be almost inconceivable.

Bees are also reliable indicators of the health of agricultural ecosystems.

Monocultures and intensive farming relying on pesticides are two key causes of the decline in bee populations across the EU, which have shrunk by 30% a year for the past decade.

Furthermore, the possibility of honey being contaminated with GMO pollen threatens its image as a healthy food.

The Greens successfully obtained a ban on the most toxic bee-killing pesticides (neonicotinoids).

We also managed to build new alliances inside Parliament with MEPs from across the political spectrum, as well as externally, with environmental NGOs and, most importantly, the traditionally conservative beekeeping community.

Our call for a ban on neonicotinoids ultimately led the Commission to enforce a partial ban of these toxic bee-killing pesticides.

The Greens regret the fact that the ban is only partial. Parliament as a whole fell short of supporting our main demands to curtail the use of pesticides that are toxic to bees, refuse to approve any more GMOs, and press ahead with the transition from monocultures to more diversified farming.